A non-stroking, constant velocity universal joint widely used in front wheel drive axles of motor vehicles includes a cup-shaped outer joint element having internal ball grooves in a spherical wall thereof separated by partitions, an inner joint element having external ball grooves in a spherical wall thereof, a cage between the inner and outer joint elements coacting with the spherical walls of each and having a plurality of ball apertures in register with the internal and external ball grooves, and a plurality of bearing balls in the ball apertures and ball grooves. For assembly, the cage is turned perpendicular to an open end of the outer joint element with a diametrically opposite pair of ball apertures aligned with a diametrically opposite pair of partitions. Because the outside dimension of the cage at the ball apertures is less than the inside dimension of the open end of the outer joint element between the partitions, the cage passes between the diametrically opposite partitions. Assembly in this manner, however, requires that the width of the ball apertures in the cage be greater than the width of the partitions.
A characterizing dimensional relationship of universal joints having the construction described above is the ratio of the bearing ball circle diameter ("BCD") to the bearing ball diameter ("BD") which, for motor vehicle from wheel drive universal joints, is typically in a range of between 3.1 and 3.5.Universal joints having higher BCD/BD ratios are attractive because the ball apertures in the cages of such joints are more widely spaced and the cages, consequently, are more durable. A consequence of increasing the BCD/BD ratio is that the joint becomes difficult to assemble because the width of the partitions on the outer joint element increases to greater than the width of the ball apertures in the cage. A universal joint according to this invention is assembled in the above described conventional manner but is characterized by a BCD/BD ratio exceeding 3.5.